I went to Collage.

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Christmas Take 2

So after a very memorable Christmas with the Robert's clan, we headed back to good old Houston to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at church with my parents, brother, and a few friends, then headed over to my parent's house for our traditional Pappasito's fajita dinner.  (Of course-- Ryan had to make his Jalapeno popper dip to accompany the meal) 

 

After dinner we all got in our Christmas pajamas ( another Tradition--thanks mom--the jammies were especially great this year!!)  and the kids made cookies for Santa while the adults enjoyed a nice glass of wine.  Next the kids piled up into Pawpaw's lap for the reading of a Christmas story (tradition number 3) and then headed up to bed.  The adults, meanwhile, stayed up into the wee hours of the night waiting for Santa Claus. 

 

Christmas morning started with yet another tradition of taking pictures of grandparents and grandkids at the top of the stairs.  After that was done-- the kids ran down to see what Santa had left for them-- and boy did he out do himself this year!!!  Ryan made everyone pose with their presents over their head.  I thought it was pretty cheesy- but it made for some cute pictures.

Kai went nonstop all day  playing with his new toys (there are no naps on Christmas).  He loved everything he received-- as did everyone else.  

He finally wound down around 9:30-- and when I put him to bed I reminded him that today was Jesus' birthday so we decided we should sing happy birthday to him before we said our prayers. It was a great was to end a fabulous Christmas.

Christmas Take 1

(Check the Web Picture Albums link on the right after Christmas for all the pics)

Okay we made it through our first 5 hour car trip with the 4 of us and everything went awesome.  We logged about 13 hours in the car in a 48 hour span and we lived.  Lindsay did say the word "miserable" only 6 times so it was good.   

We went up to Campbell on Saturday and watched the Cowboys lose.  Sunday (late morning) everyone (Doug's crew, Marla's crew, Wesley's crew, and Grandma) got together for lunch and gifts.

We hung out for a few hours then headed to my old stomping grounds (Wills Point) for Christmas with the Roberts side of the family tree.  As usual, it was a packed house.  I think we had 29 out there.... Anyhoo it was great.   Greg, Maddie, Sam, Dylan, and I started the random pic game ..... (however.... Sam's camera got the best of these pics)...

We went back to Grandma's and crashed....  Monday we hung out until about 4 and headed back to Houston.  

  

Thanks Kev!!!

Andrew's growth

One of mom's friends had a really good idea to chart the growth of your baby during the first year. Every month we will be taking Andrew's picture to see how he changes over the course of the year. Here is his first month picture. Stay tuned to see this little tot grow!!

Cookies!!

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Yesterday mom and I spent the day making Christmas cookies. I had a few parties and church events to prepare for so I enlisted her help in getting the job done. We tried out some new recipes and were quite please with results. Above is the platter I made for Kai's teachers at school. It has peanut butter cookies, chocolate covered peanut butter cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, date balls, and two types of truffles ( yes... all homemade) We also made some oatmeal cookies and some peanut butter bars called Buckeyes that I will be taking to a party this weekend. (If you are wondering why all the peanut butter-- Ryan accidentally bought a jar of super chunky peanut butter, which Kai or myself will not eat- so I put it to good use in my baking) I had a really good time experimenting with recipes and cooking with mom. I hope we can make this a yearly tradition!!

Tis the season

With the complete randomness of snow today, I thought I would blog about all of our Christmas ongoings.  Our church held two events that we attended to help get us in the Christmas spirit.   The first was a visit from Santa Claus.  Our two were not very impressed.

For the second event, Kai and I attended a Night in Bethlehem.  It was a night spent recreating the environment of the time when Jesus was born.  We made perfume by grinding spices together, we kneaded dough to make bread, we made toys out of "clay" and got to ride a donkey and pet a camel.  It was a lot of fun.   

 

We have yet to put lights up outside, but our tree was decorated by Kai (we had to redistribute the ornaments just a little)

I still have a lot of shopping to do and we have a few more parties to attend before the big day, but so far, this is shaping up to be a pretty good holiday season.

throats, bellybuttons and toes, oh my

Ryan had to stay home  from work today to take care of his sick and ailing family.  Kai has come down with strep throat again, Andrew's belly button is infected, and I had my ingrown toenail removed!!  We were a sad group.  

Here a is beautiful pictures of my toe.  It looks bad, but believe me it feels 100% better like this than it did a day ago when it was ingrown and infected.

In other news, I have decided not to go back to work until January 5.  I decided that I was just not ready to go back, plus I did not want Ryan/ my mom to have to take off to watch Andrew, when he and I already have a pretty good schedule going.  And I did not want to start pumping milk on a regular basis... and I just did not want to go back to work.  It might hurt us a little financially, but I think it is really the best for everyone.  

Baby Acne!!

I think we are finally getting into the groove of Andrew. He is a great sleeper and a pretty good eater (even though he does not particularly like my right boob right now-- it makes him cry for some unknown reason) He is very content and is happy most of the time. However, the baby acne has reared its ugly head again. Kai got the worse baby acne when he was a baby. His face was covered in bumps, and we are starting to see the same thing on Andrew (just in time for the holidays) They say baby acne is due to the hormones nursing babies get from their mother. It doesn't last long, but it certainly makes a cute baby not so cute.

Talking in your sleep

Here is Andrew Scott celebrating his Uncle Scott's 30th birthday party at Olive Garden!!



We are now 11 days into the life of Andrew. My mom has been amazing helping us out. She came over everyday last week to cook, clean and just be there to help out. Kai got strep throat so he was home with us for a couple of days, so having my mom there really saved the day.

Kai has not quite adjusted to life with a brother... I wish I could say he took to him instantly as shown in this picture ( completely staged by me... neither one had any idea what was going on)



But instead it is more like this...




Don't get me wrong. Kai loves his brother. He is concerned when he cries and wants to know where he is at all times, but he doesn't want to touch him and is often upset by how much time Andrew takes away from his mom/Kai time. I told him he has to share him mommy with Andrew and that didn't go over to well.

Other than that Andrew is adjusting well to life outside the womb. He is eating good and sleeping very good (granted he is sleeping in the bed cuddled up next to me). I plan on continually working on getting this child into the crib. This is the forth baby our crib has seen and has yet to have a baby regularly sleep in it. Yesterday I was successful in getting him to take a 3 hour nap in his crib. I took a picture for documentation purposes to prove to myself that sleeping in the crib is possible. Right now he is sound asleep in the middle of my king size bed.

Hey baby, Hey baby......

Home and Healthy.

Well he is here finally at 9 pounds 13 ounces. Andrew Scott Roberts was born on November 5th, 2008 at 5:19pm. He is a big boy and he looks a lot like Kai but without the dimples. He may have the dimples but he's a chunk so maybe we can't see them. Anyhoo... We are all doing great. We are happy that we're home and that Lindsay and Andrew are healthy. I'm going to post some pictures but I'm sure more will follow.

Jack-o Laterns

Halloween is a great holiday to kick off the holiday season. You get to decorate. dress up, and hang out with friends. This past Friday we got together with some of our friends for a pumpkin carving party. Here are the finished products. Celeste did not get to stick around very late so we had to take her pumpkin's picture first. It is kind of blurry, but it is a really cute bat. My friend Karey made the smiley face, Kevin made the skull and cross bones, and I made the skull face. Ryan's is still to come...







Unfortunately, the kids wanted nothing to do with the carving process. Something about it being too messy and smelly. They choose instead to completely destroy the downstairs of our house with toys. Kai spent the next two days cleaning up his mess.